Math trouble when kids can’t estimate ‘how many’

Parents may be able to help their children develop number skills by asking them “how many” as often as possible.

“Lacking skill at estimating group size may impede a child’s ability to learn the concept of how numerals symbolize quantities and how those quantities relate to each other,” says study co-author David Geary, professor of psychological sciences at the University of Missouri. “Not understanding the values numbers symbolize then leads to difficulties in math and problems in school, which our previous studies suggest may be related to later difficulties with employment.”